Amazon has got into trouble with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after publishing misleading claims about a book promoting a vaccination-free childhood.

The ASA ruled the online retailer’s portrayal of Melanie’s Marvelous Measles could not be substantiated and broke advertising rules.

I really like the ASA but they have no teeth. The best we can do is to promote this story. This book aimed at children and their parents is alarming and downright dangerous. For such promotion, Amazon was called to task. Here is the adjudication:

The CAP Code stipulated that marketers must not discourage essential treatment for conditions for which medical supervision should be sought. We noted that measles would fall into that category because it was an infectious disease that could give rise to serious complications. For the reasons described above, we considered that consumers were likely to understand from the ad that measles was not always a dangerous disease and could in fact be beneficial to the body, and that vaccination could be unnecessary in industrialised countries. We considered that those consumers reading the ad and understanding it to present factual information about the disease would be less likely to have their children vaccinated as a result. We therefore concluded that the ad was irresponsible because it discouraged essential treatment for measles.

See the original story about this book “Melanie’s Marvelous Measles” here.